UKUUG
(the UK's Unix & Open Systems User Group)
UKUUG RC5 Team
Obtaining and installing the client
Distributed.net provide clients for most operating systems. The full list of clients is available from the client download page. If you're running Windows it is recommended that you download the x86/Installer version which will install the client automatically.
If possible try to keep your distributed.net client updated as newer clients often contain optimisations and support for new contests. Simply check the client download page every few months to see if any new versions have been released.
Setting up the client
If you're using the Windows Installer version of the client it'll ask you if you want to set up the client, if you're using the client for another platform or you're using the zipped Windows version you'll have to extract the program first and run it. The first time you run it you will see the configuration menu. To get the client up and running all you have to do is to provide your email address which is used for calculating your statistics and your position in the team. Most of the other options you can leave as default unless you're behind a firewall where you may have to specify your proxy settings. More detailed information is included in the README files which accompany the client, there's also help available from distributed.net in the documentation section of their website.Under UNIX you can run the client as a daemon (running in the background with
no output to the screen) by issuing the following command:
./dnetc -quiet
If you're permanently connected to the Internet this method will automatically
fetch and flush blocks as needed. However if you're not permanently connected
to the Internet you can fetch and flush the blocks manually upon connection.
To do this I issue the following command to run the client offline an in
the background:
./dnetc -quiet -runoffline
and then when I connect I run
./dnetc -update
to fetch/flush the buffers.
To
automate the process you can put the startup command in your startup files
for example /etc/rc.d/rc.local for most versions of Linux I add the following
line:
/usr/local/rc5/dnetc -quiet
(assuming that dnetc is installed
in the /usr/local/rc5 directory). If you're running offline you can add
-runoffline to the end of that line.
If I'm running the client offline I put a call to dnetc -update in /etc/ppp/ip-up so it updates when I dial up a PPP connection.
If you need any more help with this read the distributed.net documentation or email me if you run into any major problems.
Finally please remember to only install the client on machines which you have permission to do so.
Joining the team
To join the UKUUG team you will first have to run the client for a day or two and have sent some blocks to the server. This will register your email address on the statistics. To see if you've been added yet go to stats.distributed.net and do a search for your email address. If your email address is listed click on it. It should say at the bottom of this page that the user has not been assigned a password. Click on the link to get a password emailed to you. This password should appear in your mailbox within a few minutes. Note the password.There should be a link on the email which gives the URL of the page to edit your personal details, click on this link and enter your details (your name will only be displayed if you request it and the phone numbers will only be used by distributed.net if you've won a cash prize - however you can leave these blank if you want to). Remember to select your country as distributed.net also produces stats based on country. Once you have your distributed.net password click here and enter your email address and distributed.net password. You'll then see a page confirming that you've joined the UKUUG team.
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